


peppermint

by neutralbutterfly



Category: New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Gen, Past Sexual Assault, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-19
Updated: 2017-08-19
Packaged: 2018-12-17 03:58:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11843523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neutralbutterfly/pseuds/neutralbutterfly
Summary: (Full game spoilers.)It could be a mere coincidence, but Ouma isn't sure. He's the best liar present, not the only one.





	peppermint

**Author's Note:**

> As warned in the tags- contains non-graphic descriptions of sexual assault. Reader discretion is advised.

Tsumugi's perfume smells like peppermints.

Ouma taps his fingers on the table, suddenly not hungry anymore. She's sitting too close to him, way too close, especially for someone who usually fades into the background of a group. She isn't talking to him, in fact, she's not even looking in his direction - too busy talking to Yumeno about magical girls - but it's hard to not feel sick.

He pushes his chair away, easing a mischievous smile onto his face, and decides to bother Momota. He's easy to rile up, with his short fuse. That ought to change the tune of the day.

* * *

The clock ticks in the background of his brain as the next video in the playlist starts automatically. Kokichi reaches blindly beside him for the package of mints that he picked up for not even a hundred yen from a vending machine at the corner store across the street, when there's a crashing noise from downstairs.

Kokichi pauses the video and waits. The sound of crunching glass follows, which rules out the cat. He pushes the screen of his laptop down and turns off his light, then crawls under his covers. 

His mother must have dropped a vase. Yes, that seems to be the most likely scenario. When she got home from work, she merely didn't say hello to him. That's how it usually goes, so this can be no different.

Right?

The door swings open a minute later, and Kokichi's heart races. It must be his mother, it  _must_ be.

His quilt flies off of him to reveal a face he's never seen before.

* * *

The blow dart hits him in the neck and Ouma's eyes go wide. Harukawa has the gun pointed right at his face, her eyes stone cold. The light in the hangar makes her hair look green. For a moment, he doesn't see Harukawa Maki, but long hair and a  _storm_ of grey eyes.

He can smell it on her, despite the blood and must hanging in the air, the peppermints. There's no mistaking it. Did she get perfume from Tsumugi? Or does she know?

Do they  _all_ know?

His smile, his last great lie, doesn't waver, but his confidence does. If any of them know, then he might as well be done for. He's not weak, not anymore, but he can't let it get out.

Maybe he'll get lucky and die before he can ponder it anymore.

Momota jumps in front of him, saving his life from the next dart, and Ouma nearly cries out.

* * *

It stops hurting after the first moment. Kokichi doesn't scream, but he does cry silent tears. The person - he thinks that it's a woman, but all he sees is long hair - hushes him every time he makes a noise, no matter how small.

When it ends, after a few minutes or several hours, he finds himself unable to breathe. He's left with silence, with tears welling in his eyes, with a mint melting in his mouth.

In the morning, he blames the shattered window on the neighbour's kid. It's wonderful, how easy his first lie is believed, that he almost forgets about the events of the night before.

* * *

In her room, Tsumugi rolls the empty perfume bottle over in her hands, resisting the urge to grin like an anime villain. There's less than an hour to go before the final class trial, and she couldn't be more excited.

Her biggest problem is out of the way, and she can ditch the scent she painstakingly adorned herself with. Thankfully Harukawa - grieving, foolish,  _naive_ Harukawa - took the second bottle of the crap. Perhaps getting the damn perfume custom made wasn't her smartest idea.

She tosses the bottle behind her, and it hits her bed. Tsumugi doesn't turn around, instead staring at her reflection in the mirror. Will she be figured out as the mastermind this year, or, like last season, will she have to reveal herself? Sure, there's a detective this time around, but he's a coward afraid of the truth, and she's a background character in her own life.

Tsumugi adjusts her glasses, drags her teeth other the dry skin on her lip, and prepares to soar.


End file.
